Uzbekistan's national carrier Uzbekistan Airways is ramping up preparations for an initial public offering on international capital markets. President Shavkat Mirziyoyev reviewed the transformation progress and ordered the acceleration of planned reforms.
In recent years, the country has been actively reforming large state-owned enterprises, adopting international corporate governance and reporting standards. A key step was the creation of the National Investment Fund, managed by Franklin Templeton. In May, the fund placed assets worth $690 million on the international market for the first time. Demand exceeded supply fourfold, with investor bids reaching nearly $3 billion.
Now reforms must be accelerated in 13 major companies from the fund's portfolio to prepare them for IPOs. Among the first are Uzbekistan Airways, Uzsanoatqurilishbank, Uzbekgidroenergo, Uzbekistan National Electric Networks, and Uzbektelecom.
For the airline, Franklin Templeton developed a program of 115 measures. Its implementation could increase operating profit by $120 million annually. Measures include route optimization, boosting direct sales, improving service, reducing flight delays and cancellations, enhancing efficiency of subsidiaries (catering, maintenance), and attracting qualified specialists.
As a result, the airline's market value could rise from $1.6 billion to $2.3 billion. However, the pace of implementation remains slow. The president stressed the need to improve management quality, strengthen financial discipline, report under international standards, and improve the credit rating.
By year-end, an IPO is planned to sell 15–20% of Uzbekistan Airways shares. Measures have been defined for objective performance assessment, asset structure optimization, and improving compensation mechanisms for services under state orders.
Growing tourism also demands quick action: tourist arrivals have increased by 27.5% since the start of the year, reaching nearly 5.5 million. However, fleet expansion is slow. A separate procurement procedure has been ordered to accelerate fleet renewal.
The president noted that Tashkent has every opportunity to become Central Asia's largest aviation hub. This requires coordination between Uzbekistan Airways, Uzbekistan Airports, and the New Tashkent airport.
A project office will be created for systematic work, and specialists with international financial market experience will be brought into company management. Each company will have an IPO preparation schedule with strict oversight.
Earlier, Uzbekistan Airways announced a revision of its flight program to Russia amid a fuel crisis.
Source: podrobno.uz